Teachers and student girls in some schools in Ebonyi State have testified to the positive impact of a health project, executed in their schools.
The project was tagged: “Promoting School Health Education for Girls in the COVID-19 Era.”
It was executed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation in collaboration with the Ebonyi State Universal Basic Education Board.
The students and teachers bared their minds during the close out ceremony of the project co-funded by UNESCO and Perking University, China.
The event was held Friday in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
The teachers and students, who spoke to newsmen at the event, admitted that the health enlightenment project impacted positively on their psychology, emotions and socio-biological mindset, making them better understand the dynamics of adolescents’ needs and behaviours.
Lillian Egwu, a Basic Science teacher in Holy Child Secondary school, Afkpo, narrated how the project transformed her from being antagonistic to adolescent girls to becoming a mother to all students of her school.
Egwu said: “The first day I attended this UNESCO’s project seminar, the training was so interesting and revealing that after the seminar, my thought and orientation changed totally concerning my perception of adolescents’ behaviours.
“Before now, if I see a boy walking with a girl, I would already conclude that they are having sex, and if I see young people dressed in some ways, I would immediately condemn them, concluding that they lacked home training, and so on.
“But now I understand better that most of these behaviours are responses to their natural and hormonal configuration and I have apologised to many of them, knowing that such actions and behaviours are not often deliberate, but part of their developmental challenges.
“Today, this UNESCO’s project has equipped me with requisite skills to counsel adolescent girls and boys, teaching them how to manage their adolescent hormonal drives and reactions.
“In fact, I now act as a guidance counsellor to students and they always confide in me in their reproductive health and other gender issues, such that I am now like a mother to most of them.”
Another teacher and principal of one of the represented schools, Grace Egwu, said the project has strengthened her passion for young people and adolescents.
She also narrated how the project enabled her to save the future of a young girl who got pregnant during the COVID-19 lockdown by bringing her back to school.
Egwu said: “During the COVID era, so many girls dropped out of school for one reason or the other.
“Some were even raped and some others got pregnant, which predisposed them to dropping out of school.
“In fact, I had one in my school, who was impregnated and about to drop out at the time they were about to write the Basic Education Certificate Examination.
“But due to the impact of the project, I had to follow the girl up with her family, stood by and encouraged her and successfully brought her back to school to write her BEC exams.
“Today, the girl is in the senior secondary classes, pursuing her future.”
Some of the school girls interviewed, including Victoria Agboti and Bethel Echem from Holy Child Junior Secondary School, Afikpo, expressed gratitude to UNESCO and UBEB for the project, which they said has helped them understand their body better as adolescent girls.
They noted that the project has taught them how to effectively communicate with their parents, teachers and guardians, how to relate with their peers of all sexes and make strong and proper decisions for their future.
Echem added: “The project made me understand that menstruation is a normal healthy occurrence in my system requiring certain hygienic practices; that drinking concoctions to stop the flow are unhealthy….
“I thank UNESCO and UBEB for this project and I promise that I will continue to educate my peers in all I have learnt within the period this project lasted.”
In an address, the UBEB Chairman Ebonyi State, Patience Ogodo, represented by the Secretary, Livinus Ezeuwa, said the project was necessitated by identified gaps on factual and age-appropriate Information on adolescent health issues among school children, gaps on family health education curriculum teaching methodology and poor parent-child communication.
Ogbodo further noted that school-related gender-based violence was obvious in some schools with menstrual hygiene management concerns and absence of safe spaces for students.
She expressed joy that the advocacy and strategies developed and implemented by the project has satisfactorily addressed most of the gaps, and appreciated UNESCO and Peking University of China for the initiative.
He assured that UBEB has instituted succession plans through manual development and training of teachers to sustain the project in the State.
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The project focal person in UBEB, Grace Oboma, while analysing the gains of the project, said it has birthed health clubs in Ebonyi State schools, boosted effective communication between students, teachers and parents as well as curbed student/pupils abuses, while strengthening counselling and school related GBV management, among other gains.
The one-year project, which ran from September 2022 to September 30, 2023, was piloted in five local government areas of the state: Abakaliki, Afikpo, Ebonyi, Ezza South and Izzi.
Highlight of the event was the presentation of awards to outstanding teachers.
